Bunta Marui
Background Bunta Marui (丸井 ブン太, Marui Bunta) is a 3rd year student on the Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku team. Marui is a volley specialist and his expertise in the area far exceeds one of the field's best volleyers, Jirō Akutagawa. In fact, he was the one who inspired Jirō's tennis. He is shown to be a very capable singles player like every other member of the Rikkai Dai team. When he plays doubles, he typically partners with Jackal, but partnered with Niō for a match in the Nationals. He also played in the Newcomer's Tournament in his first year. Despite wearing arm weights during matches, he has stamina issues, so he overdoses on sugar by always chewing bubblegum, even when he plays tennis. He also preps for each match by eating an entire cake. Appearance Marui has bright red-pink hair and loves chewing bubble gum. He also appears short for his age. He is significantly shorter than most of the other 3rd Year Middle Schoolers in the series and is the shortest member of Rikkai Dai. He also has purple / pink eyes as shown in the anime. Personality Marui finishing Ramen.png Marui eating Ramen.png|Marui at Jackal's family restaurant. Marui and Jirou.jpg|Marui bumping into Jirou outside of school. Marui is one of the most laid-back members of Rikkai, and he tends to be playful and care-free outside of tennis court. Within the bunch of truth-seekers at Rikkai, Marui cannot break his easygoing behaviour. In fact, it is probably due to him having quite a lot of guts. Marui is known to have a sweet tooth. He enjoys eating cakes and sweets but most of all, Marui loves bubblegum. He is always seen chewing gum and blowing bubbles even whilst playing matches. He has a tendency to place a burden of tasks that he appears to set for himself on close friend Jackal. Marui hangs around with Jackal and the two appear to be best friends. As shown in the Another Story OVA, Marui and Jackal would go places together after school and then Marui accompanies Jackal on watching over the wild Kirihara Akaya. He also seems to care for Akaya, as he couldn't leave him alone in his first year and followed him all the way to the arcade and bought him ramen. Marui is shown to be quite confident in his abilities not unlike most players in the series. He is proud of his volleying skill and is aware he is perhaps the best middle schooler that focuses their play on volleys. He calls his moves genius-like(tensai-deki) after performing his special shots that stun spectators such as Tightrope Walking. History Two Years Prior to the Storyline Marui began Rikkai Dai along with the rest of the Rikkai 3rd Years as 1st years. He played in the Newcomer's Tournament. Marui won against Jirō Akutagawa. One Year Prior to the Storyline Marui and Jackal befriend Kirihara Akaya after Kirihara arrogantly challenges the 3 Monsters and watch him get effortlessly humbled by Yanagi Renji, Sanada Genichiro and Yukimura Seiichi. They treat Kirihara to ramen after seeing him playing at an arcade and explain how Rikkaidai won the Nationals the previous year and that the best players in the club, were in fact the 2nd years who were the 3 monsters at this time and that the seniors that Kirihara thought were the driving force behind Rikkai Dai were nothing compared to their year. Marui watches on with other soon-to-be regulars Niou Masaharu, his best friend Jackal, and Yagyuu Hiroshi as Kirihara faces Sanada for a rematch. He is shocked seeing Kirihara go Bloodshot Mode for the first time. Districts Marui and Jirou.jpg|Marui and Akutagawa. The Volley specialists. Marui in action.jpg|Marui during the same time as when the District Tournaments took place. 1bf8f70336a3d05d3912bba5.jpg|Marui takes the cake to be given to Yukimura It is shown that during this time, Marui is challenged to a match by Akutagawa Jirou after the latter visits him in his school ground. However, their matches ends after Jirou falls asleep in the middle of the game, shocking both Marui and the rest of the Rikkaidai team. Kanagawa Prefecturals Marui and Rikkai effortlessly won the Kanagawa prefecture tournament and broke the tournament record for fastest tournament win despite the significant absence of captain Yukimura Seiichi. Regionals 1bf8f70336a3d05d3912bba5.jpg|Marui, Niou and Yagyuu visit Yukimura the day before his operation. Marui and Rikkai Dai cruise through to the finals of the Kanto Regional Tournament with ease and visit captain Yukimura while he is in hospital a day before the final, assuring him that they can win the tournament so he can come back to the team with a trophy before the Nationals. Marui pairs with best friend Jackal Kuwahara for Doubles 2 against Momoshiro Takeshi and Kaido Kaoru pair. He and Jackal shut down Momoshiro and Kaidoh despite the 2nd years' best efforts. He stuns them early on with his Tightrope Walking and volleying skills. He and Jackal win 6-1 after a long match. Nationals Marui, Jackal and Yagyuu explaing to Kirihara.jpg|Marui, Jackal and Yagyuu explaining to Kirihara that they lost their matches on purpose to help Kirihara activate Devil Mode. Marui in the Nationals.jpg|Marui during the final. Rikkai Dai go to the Nationn nals as underdogs after a shock defeat to Seigaku in their Regional final; however due to the return of their captain Yukimura Seiichi, they expect nothing short of a 3rd Consecutive championship. The tournament begins as a swift walk in the park for Rikkai Dai as they cruise through past all of their opponents until the Semifinals. At the Semifinals, it appears as though Rikkai Dai are having difficulty against their opponents Nagoya Seitoku from the Aichi region,a team where all the regulars are Western Foreigners. At first, it appears Yagyuu Hiroshi is utterly defeated in Singles 3 by one of them. Then in Doubles 2, it appears that Marui and Jackal are also outclassed. With everything seemingly relying on the shoulders 2nd Year Kirihara Akaya who plays agaisnt Nagoya Seitoku's ace Liliadent Krauser. Krauser effortlessly jumps to an early lead and dominated Kirihara with his power and Hopping Ball shot. Until suddenly Kirihara activates Devil Mode and makes a 7-5 comeback annihalating Krauser. Marui, Jackal, Yagyuu and the rest of the team laugh and smile at Kirihara after his match and reveal that they werent playing seriously at all and only lost on purpose just as to make Kirihara activate Devil Mode to help ensure victory for the finals. Rikkai then win the next matches in Doubles 1 and Singles 1 and advance to the finals. Marui and the Rikkai Dai team decline Seigaku's invitation to join them at a Yakiniku bar. Unbeknownst to both teams, they had just turned down an event that would become a large eating contest. Prior to U-17 Camp YagyuuMaruiC.jpg|Marui and Yagyuu in their school festival. Sometime prior to the U-17 camp, Marui, Jackal, and Kirihara shop for materials for Rikkai's Ocean Festival. During the Festival, Marui plays Cinderella's (played by Kirihara) evil step-sister alongside Yagyuu, the other evil step sister. This can be found in the PairPuri anime. Later on, the Rikkai Regulars continue training after the Nationals. During this time shown in the Pair Puri, Yukimura encouraged his teammates to have fun while playing tennis, however they comically went about it the wrong way and decided to scrap the idea. Later, Yanagi introduced the Rikkai Dai tennis club members to Inui Juice, after staying by Inui Sadaharu's house the night before. Yukimura arrives to a defeated club as all members that tasted the juice were unable to stand, besides Sanada who was in tears after tasting it but stayed standing nonetheless. U-17 Camp Marui and all of the Rikkai Dai regulars Yukimura Seiichi, Sanada Genichiro, Yanagi Renji, Yagyuu Hiroshi, Niou Masaharu, Jackal Kuwahara and Kirihara Akaya receive invitations to the All-Japan Juniors Training Camp. He plays against an unknown high schooler that is awed by Marui's Tight Rope Walking technique. Marui and all of the 50 middle schoolers who were there at the time were able to catch a ball from the helicopter in a game where those without a ball must go home. The Mental Coach arrives and declares that all middle schoolers must pair up. He then coldly says that the person they have paired with, is their opponent in a tie-break game and the loser must go home. Marui as expected paired with best friend Jackal. Marui is victorious after a tight game winning just 10-8. He and the rest of the Rikkaidai regulars watch the match between Yanagi and Kirihara. Jackal is believed to be sent home while Marui stays and defeats his next high school opponent in the Player Shuffle and reaches the 6th Court. While Jackal goes to the mountains with all the other Middle school losers and comes back to the camp as a member of the 2nd Court. Marui is present with all the other members of the camp at the main court to see the return of the Top 10 and are also present when it is revealed that Middle Schoolers have replaced No.s 11-19. Marui later bumps into Kite Eishiro when looking to have quick practice session. Tennis Record Official Middle School Tournaments *NOTE-1 No result due to Rikkai already winning 3 sets. Playing Style and Techniques Marui is widely viewed as the best Serve and Volley style player in Middle School Japan. His wide range of volleys always seem to shock both opponents and spectators. ' ' Tightrope Walking (Tsunawatari) : A volley where the ball hits the cord and neatly rolls along the top of the net away from the opponent before dropping to the ground. : : Iron Pole Strike (Tetchuu-Ate) : A similar volley to Tightrope Walking, where the ball bounces off the iron pole at the end of the net. : ' ' Temporal Difference Hell (Jikansa Jigoku) : A fake smash where he changes the angle of collision at the last second, to make it impossible to predict its direction. He allows the ball to go past his head, and swings his arm backwards up into the air behind and returns the ball making the course nearly impossible to predict. : 'Super Rising ' : Marui returns the ball before it bounces to the highest point. As a result, his opponents have less time to react. He used this move against Takeshi Momoshiro ´s Dunk Smash. Trivia *He is the shortest member of Rikkaidai, even though he's the oldest. *He placed 11th in the third character polls, and 18th in the fourth. *In Musical Tennis no Ōjisama, Marui is played by Kiriyama Renn and Acaba Mio, and is being portrayed in the second season musicals by Yasukawa Junpei. Category:Characters Category:Tennis Player Category:Rikkaidai Tennis Club Member Category:Middle Schooler Category:3rd Year Middle School Category:U-17 Camp Category:Serve and Volley Category:Right-Handed Category:Kanto Players Category:Kanagawa Players Category:Doubles Specialists Category:Capable with Singles and Doubles